Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving

Leave it to Hollie to almost ruin her own surprise party. =) For Hollie's 30th birthday, I threw her a surprise party. Which I'm sure you're thinking, "that is so sweet." Haha, Hollie HATES to be the center of attention so really I was being a little rat.
We had planned that I was going to take her to lunch for her 30th birthday then we'd go shopping well a half hour after we were supposed to meet she calls and tell me to meet her at Jiffy Lube because she wants to get her oil changed. Jed gave her a new camera for her birthday so I took a picture of her waiting in line at Jiffy Lube. She didn't understand why that was so funny at the time.

Below is a true story from my childhood told from Hollie's point of view, she reads it to her third graders every year when they learn about personal narratives. I've added some pictures from the party as well as a few from our childhood to make it more entertaining. =)

Caught in the Kitchen
The following story is an account of a risky adventure gone wrong. Two Junior High school girls seek entertainment through a little mischief. As told by Hollie Fisher
It was a warm summer night when my sister and I were talking late in the living room. My parents had gone to bed and so we tried to keep our laughing down so we didn’t wake them. We were talking about boys when we decided we might have a little fun. There was a boy in our neighborhood that we liked to joke around with, so we made him our target. After a little creative thinking we started packing up the materials we needed to pull of a successful job. We raided the kitchen. We packed some Cheerios, pickles (with juice), leftover cake, popcorn balls, corn flakes and of course TOILET PAPER.

Finally we were ready to move. We snuck out the back door and left the light on for when we returned. We were almost to the back gate when I whispered to Becky “did you lock the door.” “No” she said. “Good” and we were on our way. We walked quickly down the dark deserted road to our target house a few blocks away. Then all of a sudden a car came around the corner and straight towards us. “Quick behind that bush” I whispered in a panic to Becky and we slid out of sight just in time. But, when we dove behind the bush Becky spilled some Corn Flakes on the street. “We’ve got to clean this up” I said. “We can’t leave any evidence behind.” We kicked the Cornflakes onto the grass where they wouldn’t be noticed. “That was a close one,” Becky said as she took a deep breath.
We finally reached the house that we had marked to do some creative damage to that night. It was a one story beautiful home with beautiful grass and a long driveway up to the front door. We noticed the front light on, which illuminated the pretty lace curtains in the front window, but not a single light was on in the house. There were no trees along the pathway up to the house so we would have nowhere to hide. We needed to act quick. Get in and get out- not waste any time. One wrong step, or any noise at all, could wake the family inside and we would be caught.
We got the job done quick just like we wanted. Becky took the TP and went to work. I started pouring the cereal, pickles, and cake all over the walkway and porch. Just as I finished I looked over and she was on her last roll. I ran to help her finish up when we heard a huge “Ruff.” It was Rocky the huge family Doberman. He was looking out the window and right at us as let out another huge bark. Becky looked at me with a look that said “we are in for it now.” The dog barked again and a light in the house flicked on. We froze only for a second. Then we both realized what we had to do. RUN!!!!!! We took off as fast as lightning down the street. Though the sound of us breathing was so loud we still managed to hear the door to the house creek open. We made it around the street corner and Becky, in between her loud panicked breathing, says, “do you think they saw us?” “I don’t know” I said in a small but strong voice, trying not to sound scared.
We didn’t stop running until we were safe in our own backyard. We stood there at the gate and caught our breath. I put my hand on Becky’s shoulder to hold me up. We caught our breath and we both looked up at each other the started laughing harder than we had ever laughed before. There was nothing funny. I don’t even know why we were laughing. Maybe it was because we were proud we had done it, or that we both looked so funny running down the street like mad in the middle of the night. Or maybe, it was because we were glad that we were safe back home and we hadn’t gotten caught. We giggled up to the door giving each other high fives. Becky grabbed the door knob to the back door and stopped laughing when it didn’t turn. “It’s locked” she said. I laughed “Yea Right” She tried to turn the knob again. “It really is” said Becky getting a little angry. “Stop joking around” I said as I grabbed the door knob and tried to push the door open. I stood there for a moment in amazement. It really was locked and I knew that this meant trouble.
I knew for a fact that all the other doors were locked. “I thought you said you didn’t lock it” I accused. “I didn’t” she said right way. I knew that arguing wasn’t going to make the door magically unlock so I started to think what we could do. “The window” Becky said as she peered over my shoulder. “It’s open just a crack..” “We are saved I thought, “But how are we going to get up there?” “I’ll give you a boost Becky said as she crouched over beside the window. I struggled to get up on her back.. Then I stood up and reached for the window. “A little closer” I whispered. She inched closer. I tugged on the window. It barely moved. I tugged harder and it slammed all the way open with a bang. “ SHHH” I could hear Becky say from underneath me. I knew we still had to be quiet. Our mission would be ruined if we woke up mom or dad when we were trying to get back in. I slipped the small window screen out of the window and lowered it to the ground. Then I started to shimmy through the very small window. I got my arms through and my stomach, but it was almost impossible to get my legs through without falling through the other side onto the kitchen floor. I felt like I was stuck. I wasn’t going anywhere, not in, not out. I may be in this window forever.
Just as Becky gave me a little boost higher to try to help, in the silence of the cool night I thought I heard something then ‘click’ the kitchen light flicked on. There in his bathrobe in the kitchen doorway stood my dad. His eyes we tired and angry as he stared at me stuck in the kitchen window. I thought it must be a funny sight so I giggled a little, but I stopped immediately when I saw he wasn’t laughing. This was going to be a long night.

Bonus Picture:
(Now that Hollie is old, her  cute little Brooke is my new best friend.)
Love you Hollface!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

I know everyone thinks their grandma is the cutest but seriously... look at GP (grandma park)
The light was in grandma's eyes. haha
Once she figured it was the flash from the camera she smiled big.
Hollie brought her kids and we went to visit GP in her assisted living home.
There are lots of pictures here but I just couldn't get rid of any of them.
Grandma only remembers Caleb's name. It was a little hurtful at first but now I can appreciate it.
We took Brooke and Ash to the Syracuse Family Fun Center while Hollie and Jed went out.
I love their cute little bums while Caleb was teaching Brooke.
I thought it would be a lot easier to use the ramp.
Brooke agreed.
 Ashton's cute pink ball finally got to the pins.
 It was always Ashton's turn ...on every lane.
Ashy could barely stay on his feet.
Brooke and Ash saw their cute cousin Braxton there.
Ashton finally made it all the way up the wall.
Afterward we took the little mongrels back to our place to watch Dora.
Brooke looks handicap but Ashton is so dang cute.
We have a lot of fun together.
Caleb's a really great babysitter when he's awake.
Ash moved over to me once Caleb fell alseep.
This is Ashton's first time on the big blow up slide. You might want to turn the volume down before watching it. =)

Friday, February 4, 2011

Pick the sink....

We just finished the plumbing and electrical. Who would've thought remodeling would take so long. =) We'd narrowed the tile patterns down to 2 but then we checked out a book on tiling and decided we'd want to tile a little up the wall and around the shower too, so I'll put the other options up here again.Picking the sink is a little tricky. Here are 3 completely different options. Let's see what you think...

Sink 1
Sink 2


Sink 3

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Keep Portland Weird

Caleb and I went up to Oregon to visit Brandon and Marci in Eugene. If you thought Portland was weird wait until you see Eugene. =) We lost our camera on the way home from Oregon which really sucks. I didn't take many pictures with my phone because I forgot to bring the charger so it was almost dead the entire trip.
 The very first thing we noticed in Oregon is that everyone was going the speed limit. Odd. We had to drive 2 hours from Portland to Eugene and it is safe to say that this was the case the entire trip. We were flying passed cars while driving only 5 or 6 mph over the speed limit.
Road sign
Don't get me started on the toilets. Push up for liquid waste... push down for the flush of shame.
 We were told we HAVE to check out VooDoo Doughnuts. Luckily for us it was right outside our hotel.
 
  The Magic is in the Hole. All of their doughnuts have unique names.
Captain My Captain, The Loop, Bacon Maple Bar, Dirt Doughnut, Old Dirty Bugger,  Miami Vice Berry, and Double Bubble.
 The Gay Bar. You’ve got to give them props for their creativity.
On our first day in Eugene Caleb and I went to Brandon's Spanish class. We had a difficult time finding his class because we were only given the name of the building he taught in (thanks for that by the way Brands) anyway, so we walked around the outside looking in the classrooms windows.
Brandon had all of the students eating out of his hands. Everyone laughed at his jokes, answered questions, and participated in the lecture.
The lecture was on pastime activities. The example in the book had knitting, but he wanted to relate it to U of O students so he changed it to Beer Pong.
The best part of the PowerPoint - emborracharse.
He wore his Weber State shirt to make us feel at home.
  We snuck a picture when the professor wasn't looking. (note to self - don't take a picture so early in the morning the day after a long day of traveling.)
 He honestly didn't know I was secretly taking pictures while he helped some students after class which makes these next 3 really awesome.
 
You can’t go to U of O campus without sitting in the big chair.



 Go ahead and make yourself comfortable Caleb.
Rocky is showing her team spirit.


We had so much fun with these little girls.
Rocky has such a silly personality.
 and Daisy is so sweet.
This is a little something special for my "special" friend Mel. It took us driving passed it about 5 times before we got a picture of the street name. Luckily it was close to our hotel.
We are concerned that both girls pooping themselves while swimming the night before might have had something to do with the sudden pool closure.
Marci let me get the girls ready for church on Sunday and both girls were absolutely perfect.
Burgerville USA rocked our socks off! Everything is fresh, local, and sustainable... I don't know about the last thing, but it was on all of their advertising.

burgerville-card
 Our hotel in Portland looked like a castle.
 This is the entry.
and the fireplace 
Caleb was in love once he found out they serve free breakfast.
 
I was easily won over by the evening drinks and appetizers.
Our room was pretty standard but nice.
The bed made it difficult to want to wake up in the morning.
 This pool was amazing, but the sauna was even better.
 I'm sad we lost all of the other pictures. But at least we have the memories. Thanks for letting us visit BMRD.

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